words and wanderlusts: ROMA continued...

SATURDAY, JUNE 11TH. ROME {PART 2}.

I had booked our tickets to the Borghese Gallery before we came and we were scheduled to tour it early in the morning, 9am I think. They only let around 250 people in at a time so that it is not crowded and you can’t even get in with our booking your tickets ahead of time. The Borghese Gallery contains masterpiece sculptures by Bernini and some other paintings and sculptures by others. Going through this gallery and viewing Bernini’s sculptures was an amazing experience. They are the best sculptures I have ever seen in my life, Bernini truly created masterpieces. The detail was incredible- the veins on the hands, the tension of the muscles, the indentions where hands were placed on skin, the life-like delicate leaves, the curls of the hair, and the curvature of the human body. His “David” and “Apollo Chasing Daphne” were the the type of works that I can’t help but shed a few tears when I see. I could literally have stayed in there and stared at those pieces all day. The grounds around the gallery are also beautiful but we couldn’t stay for long as Patrick had to get a taxi to the train station so he could make his flight to Norway and we had to check into our next hostel.

The Borghese Gallery

No picture can convey them but here are some off the internet:

David

Apollo Chasing Daphne

AND NOW A FUN STORY FOR YOU ALL:

We made it to the “Pink Floyd” Hostel, which I was kind of excited about because with that name it sounded like it might be interesting and maybe even cool, but when we got to the desk to check-in they said our reservation had been cancelled. Dezi showed them the confirmation she printed out but he still said it was cancelled a few days ago and they don’t have any rooms left. This was really weird and we still don’t know how that happened. But he tried to find a place to stay and called up the other hostels in the area but they were also full, and then he said he had found something and told us to wait. A chinese lady named Ping came through the door and motioned us to follow her, so we did and she led us into the smallest elevator I have ever seen. The three of us could barely fit if we took our backpacks off. And then it slowly creeped two floors up to Ping’s place. It was her apartment but she rented out rooms to travelers. She barely spoke any english and mainly just pointed aggressively and said “OK?! ok!” She also jacked the price up like three times but by this point we were already too far down the rabbit hole and we didn’t want to chance not finding another place to stay, especially since the area near the train station was pretty sketchy. We were all exhausted, exasperated, and a bit panicky. So naturally, like always, I found the whole scene to be a bit humorous and could not stop laughing at what Ping was doing. You would have had to be there but if you were watching us try to communicate with this Chinese lady you would’ve laughed too. Then we tried to use the internet to tell our families we were safe but it was all in Chinese, so no go, plus the internet wasn’t even working anyway...ha one more thing to add to the list of ridiculous things that were happening to us. We hesitantly left our belongings in Ping’s care and went back out into Rome, walking quickly to avoid strange men trying to sell us things.

This doesn't have anything to do with where we stayed but I didn't have any pictures of it and I saw this sign the day before and thought it was funny.

Went to the Santa Maria Maggiore church and sat inside for a little while. We wanted to see the Colosseum in the day as well as night so we headed over there to take more pictures. It was a lot crazier in the day and they had tons more obnoxious people trying to sell useless trinkets, they even had men dressed up in Roman costumes to take pictures with tourists. Got some gelato. We then walked by Palatine Hill but didn’t pay to go in. We walked through a street with a little market and then went inside another church and listened to their evensong. We continued to wander through the streets got some more gelato, and eventually came across a a church with a wedding going on inside. We were tired so we waited outside till the bridegrooms and the rest of their party came out. Let me tell you, there were some good looking and well dressed people coming out of that church. There is this thing with Italian men, they all wear really awesome sunglasses or glasses. From there we went to the Spanish Steps, which were packed with people and vendors. Dezi bought a fake Prada bag up at the top and then we ate dinner. The place wasn’t very good unfortunately so my one try to eat delicious lasagna in Italy failed. I guess i’ll just have to try again someday. I don’t think I ever mentioned what time we normally ate dinner in Italy, it’s not as late as some countries but usually we ate around 8pm because restaurants didn’t even open until 7pm. We then went back to our place at Ping’s as early as possible so we didn’t have to be in that area at night.

Santa Maria Maggiore

Beauteous Colosseum

there were beggars and cripples all over rome, i have never seen so many in my life

a little roman fabio in all his glory. if you want you can take your picture with him for a small fortune.

GELATO #4 chocolate&strawberry
okay this picture is kind of embarrassing because i have chocolate on my face but documentation is needed all for the sake of gelato

Palatine Hill?

this was in most of the churches below the statues of saints, people write letters and place pictures below or on them

i lit a lot of candles while in Europe and you donate each time

the priests that came and sang

i wanted to ride on a scooter soooo bad while in italy

i have been wondering why i have a lot of pictures with the backs of people in them and now i realize its because i wanted to take a picture of the road and then they got into them

love that

MOUNTAIN OF GIANT NUTELLAS!

GELATO #5 tiramisu or nutella?

in this church...

we stumbled upon an italian wedding. pretty awesome.
while waiting outside for the bride to come out this is what we saw...
AND NOW DEBUTING THE MEN OF ITALY: